This is a standard reply to all people who post wishing to re-home a dog for whatever reason. Over time we have discovered that this topic can become quite emotive and the aim of this standard response is to allow forum members to give support to you without repeating the same advice many times over until it feels like you are being shouted at!

As it is a standard reply, many apologies if it covers anything in your original post. It is not meant to sound patronising but is aimed at giving you all the options for re-homing that you may or may not have thought about previously in a supportive and non-judgemental way.

Have you contacted your breeder? Any good breeder would prefer you to contact them about re-homing one of their dogs. It is often a re-homing route missed by people looking to find a new home for their dog.

Have you considered approaching a dog rescue? They work in a variety of ways – some place dogs in foster homes, some try and re-home directly from you and some will put the dog into kennels. There are a couple of doodle specific rescues, if you ask your at your vet’s they may also have details of local rescues. Finally there are the national rescue charities such as Dogs Trust. If this is the route that you choose, please ask on the forum and members will let you know of rescue charities that may be able to help.We fully understand that this route is not for everyone – many re-homers want to manage the process themselves so that they are certain that their dog goes to a home that they are happy with. There are some pitfalls that you are probably aware of but here is a list of things to consider if you want to manage the process yourself:

Is your dog neutered? Unscrupulous people trawl dog forums looking for unwanted dogs that they could use for breeding in a puppy farm. If your dog is not already neutered, please consider arranging this prior to advertising him / her. If you are not willing to neuter your dog, PLEASE do not advertise the fact in any advert that you place – it is likely to attract interest from someone that you would not want to hand your dog over to.

Are you going to home check? There are several people on this forum who are experienced home checkers or who have information about home-checking. If you want to manage the process yourself but would like help with home-checking – please ask and someone will post or PM you offering help and support. We would certainly advise home-checking to ensure you are happy with the environment that your dog is going into before handing him / her over.

Social Media and internet dangers. We are sure that as an adult you are well aware of the dangers of social media and the internet – people are not always who they say they are. Unpleasant characters looking for dogs to use as bait in dog fighting circles often look for “free to good home” dogs for this very purpose – it doesn’t bear thinking about. Experience has shown us that a dog offered for re-homing often brings responses from new members – often their first post on the forum. This inevitably leads to questions over why they have not posted before which can sound unnecessarily harsh and unwelcoming. That is not the intention but we are a forum of doodle lovers who want the best for any dog that is about to be re-homed. This is why we recommend home-checking so strongly.

First time posters looking for a rescued dog. We are aware that many people read the forum without posting, often for some time while deciding if a doodle is for them. However, first time posters who are enquiring about re-homing a dog are often treated with a bit of suspicion for the reasons above. If you are looking to re-home a doodle, please introduce yourself on the forum so that we can try and eliminate some of the suspicion. Even better, come along to a meet near you and meet other doodle owners – you will have a chance to see doodles in action and also start to get to know other members of the forum. If there is not a walk near you on the forum, many of us are also members of facebook groups and know of other walks that are going on that do not appear on our forum. The important thing is that you become known in our community as a person and not simply as a user-name.

All potential re-homers. As you can see from everything above, our recommendation is that you are home-checked prior to taking on a dog who is looking for a forever home. If you have other animals, it is important to see how they get on before any decision is made. This is all done in the dog’s best interest – we would all hate to see a dog who has been re-homed once have to repeat the process because things didn’t work out.

It isn't *unnecessarily harsh and unwelcoming* to be wary of people who only pop up when a dog is being given away.. I make no apologies for that its a forum we are all entitled to say our peace I like your post but I am still going to question the *no posters* we owe it to the dogs!! xxx